Columnist Ron Kantowski: Plane truth: Sports can be deadly game

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

There's a black flag flying over NASCAR's Chase for the Cup after a private plane crash claimed the lives of 10 members of its extended family, these belonging to the Hendrick Motorsports team, this weekend near Martinsville, Va.

Which is as it should be.

But in that nobody on the King Air 200 turboprop that smashed into a hillside in murky weather near Martinsville Speedway was named Earnhardt or related to one, nobody in the knee-jerk media has called for a ban on light or private airplane travel to and from NASCAR races.

Which is also as it should be.

Like the races themselves, there's inherent danger getting to and from them, at least given the way the sport operates today, that can never be eliminated. For instance, it's a safe bet that the next DC-10 that lands at Blue Ridge Airport, which is what Martinsville calls its landing strip, will be the first one.

Accessibility to the racing circuits may be part of the reason the sport in general seems to be losing as many stars in the air as it does on the ground.

NASCAR's Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison perished in light plane and helicopter crashes, respectively, while Formula One stalwarts Graham Hill and Tom Pryce, sports car champion Al Holbert and much of the brain trust of the United States Auto Club's competition division, which used to govern Indy-style racing in this country, were killed in private plane crashes.

Others, such as Michael Andretti and then-teammate Kevin Cogan, lived to talk about them. Several years ago, the helicopter in which Andretti and Cogan were riding en route to the racetrack at Pocono got tangled up in power lines and crashed, although the racers escaped serious injury.

Accessibility is one thing that has led to the advent of travel by private plane. Time constraints are another. With NASCAR having become a national sport -- and soon to be international, with the Busch Series headed to Mexico City next year -- air travel is unavoidable. And with testing, sponsorship and media commitments now part and parcel in NASCAR, sometimes not in the same places where that week's race is, there is even less time to get there.

But sometimes, flying is just a matter of convenience, which most likely figured in the Hendrick party's decision to puddle jump into Martinsville. It's only about a two-hour drive from the Charlotte area, where the fatal flight originated, to Martinsville. When there isn't a race, that is. Outside of John Madden, there aren't too many celebrities or persons who have the means and resources to fly who would choose to sit in traffic as an option, regardless of how unfriendly the skies might be.

When he worked for NASCAR, Las Vegas Motor Speedway public relations director Jeff Motley said he traveled to about 20 events per year via private plane.

"I think it is a necessity more than a convenience," he said. "People have work to do. And you can't always rely on the inconsistencies of commercial air travel (to arrive on time)."

As Motley said, when you fly commercial, you've got to pay to park your car and arrive at least two hours early to avoid the logjam at the security checkpoint. Then when you get to where you're going, you've got to wait for your luggage and arrange for a ride to the track. Then you get to do it all over again after the race.

With a private plane, you basically arrive five minutes before the pilot winds the propeller, throw your bag on board and take off. And many of the tracks now have landing strips within a stone's throw of Turn 3 or 4.

"The way the weekends are set up, the location of the race tracks and the schedule being the way it is is, you just about have to use private airplane travel to get anywhere," said Jeff Green, driver of the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge. "Taking the chance on being delayed in an airport just won't work. You have to be there Friday morning for practice. Miss practice, and they don't let you qualify.

"It's more than just drivers. The crews, everybody has to use private planes. We're not talking about convenience, we're talking about necessity. To be able to test and to be able to get to the tracks where you need to be -- on top of doing the things you need to do for your sponsors and your team -- you just don't have much choice."

My first thought was if that NASCAR is truly a team sport and conducted itself like a baseball or NBA franchise, team members and support staff would all arrive in the same plane -- a big, fast, well-maintained charter jet. Just like the Yankees and Lakers do.

An Indy Racing League source said several teams in that series have taken to booking charters. And Motley said before selected races, there is a NASCAR charter for pit crew members, known as the Race Day Express, that flies out of Charlotte where virtually all of its teams are based.

But again, there's the matter of accessibility. If the Yankees had to play in the Quad Cities, they'd have to take a bus from Des Moines or Chicago. In which case, they might miss batting practice.

Missing batting practice isn't a big deal for a major league ballplayer as you don't get sent home for not launching a few balls into the bleachers. But as Green noted, practice and qualifying in NASCAR are mandatory, not optional. Even with a promoter's option, those who miss NASCAR's equivalent of batting practice start the race in the back of the field.

"Don't take the last flight in," Green said, "or it could cost you. You don't even take the chance of taking the next-to-last flight in for the same reason."

But the chance today's NASCAR jet-setters do take is that somebody bothered to check the oil in the private plane before they climb aboard. Statistically, the odds for safe arrival are stacked heavily in their favor, which is why traveling by private plane is still a no-brainer for most in a sport in which the safely of the participants is always an issue.

The only problem is that when something goes wrong at 10,000 feet, a good fire suit or rollcage usually isn't going to change the outcome.

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